THIRTEEN - Questions

POV – Lillia

A few weeks earlier…

I sat there in silence. Cancer? That is almost unheard of in wolves. We are quick healers with a range of witch magic in our stores for severe cases.

“What did the doctor say?” I ask.

“There’s nothing left that they could do. With Alpha’s blessing, I started going to the human hospital, and we’ve tried chemotherapy….” Mum begins, touching the head scarf covering her hair.

“It’s not getting better, bubba; it makes me feel so tired and weak. I’m struggling to perform my duties….”

I nod. I’ve noticed that. Mum thinks she hid it from me, but she didn’t. It was becoming too frequent, too obvious. Wearing a scarf around her head was the biggest red flag of all.

“It’s not getting better, Bub,” she says, grabbing my hand with her skinny one.

“I’ve noticed you’ve been sick, mum,” I begin. Mum takes a big breath in, sadness pooling in her eyes.

“What does Alpha Marcus say?” I ask, not expecting anything good. Mum’s eyes begin to tear over, betraying her feelings of defeat.

“He wants me to stop the chemo and have you step into my role.”

I don’t have my wolf yet, but I growl in response. Mum was open about our history with this pack to a point. I knew that Alpha Marcus had kindly added us to his pack before I was born, but as payment for this, mum had to work for the pack. She was first given a job working in the pack’s owned restaurant full time, but after I was born, they put her in the laundry, and she worked some afternoons and weekends in the pack restaurant instead.

At the end of each month, she was given a small stipend, the rest going towards our housing and utilities. The amount she earned barely covered my school needs and food. We were lucky when mum worked at the restaurant because at least mum was given leftovers for us.

“What about school?” I ask mum.

“Alpha Marcus said you won’t need to finish school as you’ll be taking my role anyway….”

“But mum.…” I begin. I want to go all teenagerly and stomp my foot and bang my hand against the tabletop, but I know it won’t help. Goddess, I feel so selfish thinking about myself right now.

“But, but… what about witch medicines? Fay magic even? Do they have any of that to give you?” I ask. Surely!

“Unfortunately, their stocks are low, and they have to prioritise where the medicines should go…” mum sighs, sobbing.

“Mum! It’s okay, it’s okay. Shh. I’ll do it, I’ll take over your job, so you don’t have to,” I say, getting up from my seat and wrapping my arms around her.

“No! No! This is not what I want for you. I wanted you to have a good life, a nice life. I wanted you to grow up in a place where you weren’t beaten or bullied, but I couldn’t do that for you. I’m sorry!” mum cries.

“It’s okay, mum, we’ll work something out. Just go have a sleep, and I’ll talk to Alpha Marcus about when he wants me to start,” I soothe.

“No!” mum yells, sitting rigidly in my arms.

“That is not what I want for you!” I look at her and see Calla, her wolf, coming forward. I feel sad. I’ve only met Calla a few times growing up. She became weak soon after mum first shifted and hasn’t regained her full strength. Mum tells me it’s because she used all her energy to save me - I was meant to be a twin, and she lost my sibling. But I think it also has to do with mum’s mate bond. After mum and Calla left her mate, it was almost as if Calla had given up.

“I’ve heard some stories… about my old pack…” mum begins. I look at her. Mum never talks about her old pack; I don’t know why she left. All I know is that something happened to her that caused her to lose my sibling… which resulted in Calla…

“We’re going back to my old pack, Lillia. I want to see my dad before I die,” mum says. I look at her and nod.

“Okay, let’s do that. When?”

//\\//\\//\\//\\

Present…

The man in the expensive suit stands in the door frame, the light from the hall contrasting against his dark clothing. His forehead is furrowed, and he has a look of determination and stress on his face like he’s been dealing with the weight of the world.

I watch as he walks in, power radiating from him, enveloping mum in a huge hug. I hear apologies and tears from mum and the man, and I suddenly feel like the third wheel.

Quietly I get up from where I am sitting and walk out to leave the pair alone. I step out the doorway when two men in uniform stop me.

“Who are you?” the first one asks. I notice the men are not wearing the uniform of the deltas from this pack, and I’m unfamiliar with who they may be.

“No one,” I reply, trying to step around him. I’m used to this treatment from Clark, oh sweet Clark, my main tormenter from both my pack and high school.

“Why were you in that room?” the guard then asks. With Clark, I would cower, bow my head and apologise for getting in his way. But I don’t know these men, and they have no authority over me.

“None of your business,” I reply, looking up at him. He has bright green eyes and a large, strong nose. I shake my head and try to walk around him again, but he grasps my arm.

“Let me go and stand aside,” I say. Suddenly the man’s face changes to a view of shock, which he then tries to hide under an emotionless look. He lets go of my arm, stepping backwards and slightly bowing his head. I give him a curt nod and walk away. When I don’t feel a punch to my back, my hair being grabbed and pulled back, or a slap to the head, I smile briefly, relieved that I got through that unharmed.

I walk down the hospital hallway, passing twittering nurses who gossip with huge smiles on their faces. I hear words like fairy, guard, army, and king and wonder what they’re talking about.

“Are you Lillia?” a voice in front of me asks, making me stop walking. I see an older woman with brown curly hair and hazel eyes looking back at me.

“Are you Aviary’s daughter, Lillia?” the nurse asks me.

“Y-yes,” I begin, nodding my head. Another stranger who knows me. The nurse breaks out in a smile, and her eyes quickly glaze over before they come right again.

“I’m Danni, I am, or I was, your mother’s best friend. Come with me,” she grins, grabbing my hand. I let her lead me out of the hospital and through the pack house before she finally let go.

“We have a lot to talk about,” Danni advises me as we walk. I just nod. I do have a lot of questions. There’s so much I don’t know that mum’s kept from me; I don’t know where to start.

Trustingly, I follow Danni up the staircase that leads towards the hall to the Alpha’s wing.

“This walkway goes over the road to the residential apartments and dorms,” Danni smiles, “it wasn’t always like this. The old pack house was smaller, but we’ve grown so much in the last twenty years,” Danni says proudly. I nod but don’t say anything.

Once we cross over the walkway, which I didn’t realise was a walkway due to the doors on the right-hand side that I guessed had rooms, Danni takes a right instead of a left, where the alpha wing is.

“This is the Beta wing,” Danni explains, and again, I don’t say anything, taking this new information in as Danni opens the door to the Beta wing. Danni is the Beta female.

I follow Danni into the wing, which looks like it has a similar layout to the Alpha wing. The kitchen is semi-open to the dining living area, and a hall leads off the living room to the other rooms in the house.

“I live here with my mate and my two sons, Preston and Callum,” Danni smiles, switching the jug on in the kitchen. I watch as she opens the pantry, walks in and comes out a few minutes later with a biscuit tin.

“Are you the Beta, or is your mate?” I ask.

“I’m the Beta. My mate was a delta for the Kingdom’s Royal Guard. I met him at Alpha training. He came here with me and helped me take over the role when my dad retired,” Danni smiles.

“But you’re now a… nurse?” I ask. A sad face spreads across her face.

“Yeah, I did my degree after Alpha training. It was what I wanted to do after what happened to your mother… I wanted to help people… I’ve always felt guilty I couldn’t help your mum,” she says.

I watch as she pours the hot water into our mugs and makes me a tea without asking how I like it.

“Can you take the biscuits?” she asks, and I nod, picking up the tin, which is really just a metal container full of biscuits, and follow her out of the kitchen.

We end up in a room resembling a cross between a home library and an office. A couple of desks and a table with two computers on it are in the room. On one wall, floor to ceiling, are bookshelves, and I love that it has one of those ladders attached to the bookshelf that rolls along the floor so you can get the books on the higher shelves. Inside the room are a couple of couches and fancy-looking seats surrounding an elegant coffee table. It’s here, on coasters, that Danni places our mugs of tea.

I turn back and look at the bookshelf in awe. I have yet to fully explore the Alphas wing. I hope it has a library like this. Urban wolves had a small library in the packhouse, but I never had time to explore it. Finding a book area in the Alpha’s wing is something I’ll definitely have to do.

I sigh and then join Danni and sit on a seat opposite her.

“So, where should we start?” Danni asks, giving me a small smile.

“At the beginning,” I reply.

“What has your mother told you?” she then asks.

“Nothing. I only found out my grandfather’s name a couple of days ago. I know nothing,” I say. Danni doesn’t say anything for a while, instead looking at her tea. When she finally looks up at me, there are tears in her eyes.

~

Edited with Grammarly